When The Gannet Company, a large media firm that owns 109 publications including USA Today, announced their purchase of The Record of Bergen County in July, paying about $40 million to the Borg family who owned the publications,no one knew if cuts were coming.
Staff at the newspapers, including The Montclair Times and their bigger partner, The Record, were told about the sale and that they should continue working.
Now, numerous jobs at the newly purchased publishing company are on the chopping block.
At a meeting this week on Tuesday, staff were told jobs were being consolidated, meaning cuts are coming for many in newsrooms already being squeezed by small numbers.
Employees were told they need to re-apply for new jobs in certain departments, including production, editing, and design. Consolidation, as feared by many, is on the way, and staff will learn if they are have jobs on or about October 15.
Updates to follow.
The Montclair Times, a well-regarded weekly serving Montclair with a very loyal following, is part of this sale is also being impacted.
As previously reported by TheJerseyTomatoPress.com, the purchasing of publications by The Gannet Company and other companies have been growing their readership numbers, and with national clients looking for a broader reach, may be poised to attract more advertisers.
The sale of The Record marks the end of the Borg family owned business, which has offered news for 86 years to various communities in New Jersey, and transitions it to a company owned publication.
Newspapers, especially with a print-based model, have been disappearing for a decade and this latest sale of The Record to Gannett marks another major transition in media, this time in New Jersey.
As to how the consolidation works, and how local papers such as The Montclair Times will operate, including how and if local staff will be on hand still, is uncertain at this time.
As the model for The Star Ledger, owned by Advance Publications clearly shows, a local beat for reporters may no longer be one town or even one county.
In journalism, consolidation is leading to less staff to cover local, regional and state news, meaning many news worthy articles never make it to the public’s eye.
The death watch for journalism across the U.S. continues, as more and more family-held and privately owned papers are disappearing. And, with this continual consolidation of newsrooms across the nation, so too is coverage of crime, tax details, government corruption, and other news disappearing.
When Advance Publications took over The Star Ledger, 151 of the newspaper's 330 team departed. Also cut were 200 plus jobs in The Asbury Park Press and other newspapers purchased by them.
In our area, the team that investigated and reported on Essex county news was dramatically reduced at the Star Ledger after the sale, leaving very few reporters to do local and investigative news in the county, including Newark.
A timeline of job cuts after Advance Publications purchased the Ledger includes cuts of over 200 jobs in 2008 and half of the staff in 3 New Jersey papers in 2011.
Every business deserves to make a profit, and must make profits in order to survive. But cutting out the heart of what makes news important - the in-depth coverage and investigative work - must be protected in order to protect our very democracy.
As Noam Chomsky wisely warned, “Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media.”
Today the news shrinks once again, and tomorrow, what corruption may once again reign in our midst, hidden from the public, since no one is watching - or reporting?
